be included in this list of eighteen. Most people would probably agree that
the major eighteen Puranas are the following Brahma, Padma, Vishnu,
Shiva, Bhagavata, Narada, Markandeya, Agni, Bhavishya, Brahmavaivarta,
Linga, Varaha, Skanda, Vamana, Kurma, Matsya, Garuda and Brahmanda.
The Vishnu Purana is thus a fairly Important Purana. It is normally listed
third in the list of major Puranas. Apart from the mahapuranas, there are
also eighteen minor or upapuranas. But about this list also, there is very
little of unanimity.
There are two ways in which the eighteen major Puranas are
sometimes further classified. Both of these classifications seem to be a little
bit artificial. What does the Hindu Trinity consist of ? It consists of Brahma,
Vishnu and Shiva. But some Puranas ascribe primary importance to
Brahma, others to Vishnu and still others to Shiva. Could the eighteen
mahapuranas not be classified according to this? The trouble with doing
this is that no Purana has come down to us in its original form. Therefore,
different sects and followers of different gods have continued to add their
own beliefs to the original text. Thus a Purana that may originally have
exalted Brahma, will now contain exaltations of Vishnu and Shiva. In this
sense, no Purana ascribes complete importance to only Brahma, or to only
Vishnu, or to only Shiva. That is why this classification is artificial. But if
this classification is to be made, the Vishnu Purana would be one of the six
mahapuranas that exalt Vishnu. The other five that do so are Bhagavata,
Narada, Garuda, Padma and Varaha.
There is another way of classifying the mahapuranas and this seems to
be even more artificial. This is in terms of the three major qualities of
existence. May be you have heard of these qualities, also known as gunas.
They are goodness or sattva, darkness or tamas and passion or rajas. Some
Puranas attach importance to sattva, others to tamas and still others to
rajas. The Vishnu Purana attaches importance to sattva, as do Bhagavata,
Narada, Garuda, Padma and Varaha.
When were the Puranas written and by whom? Again, there is no
simple answer. Originally, there was probably only one Purana and all the
other Puranas developed from this original Purana. Naturally these
developments did not take place overnight and must have taken years and
years to be completed. Most scholars would date the writing down of the